Busy week for our rescue boat

Spring Break 2010 has been a busy week for our rescue boat. On Monday our crews responded to Dorman's Pond, a small but popular fishing spot a few miles west of Gales Creek, to a report of a man that had fallen into the water from a small raft. Sadly, after searching the water for 30 minutes our crews recovered the man's body from the murky water. Today we were dispatched with Gaston Fire to Henry Hagg Lake south of Forest Grove after a sailboat was spotted capsized in the lake. By the time that our crews arrived the two teenage boys who were in the boat had managed to safely reach the shore, but needless to say were wet, very cold, and extremely lucky to be alive.

Crews from FGF&R Boat 4 search for the missing fisherman at Dorman's Pond on Monday

In each incident the people involved were not wearing life jackets. Today's incident could have brought a tragic end to what has already started out to be a dangerous and deadly spring break for those on the water in Western Washington County.

There is no excuse not to wear a life jacket, in Oregon (according to the State Marine Board) 90% of all drowning victims would have survived had they been wearing a life jacket. We talked about this a few weeks ago when we had a blog post about, ironically, Hagg Lake boating safety. So once more here are some detailed tips on finding the proper life jacket and how to take care of it once you do have one.

1. First off, it's the law in Oregon that all children under 12 wear a life jacket while in the boat. In fact you cant even operate your boat if those under 12 don't have a coast guard approved life jacket on. But lets take this a step farther, parents and older kids should have them on too. Swimming around the back yard pool is one thing, but could you survive the 300+ yard swim across the lake if you fell in?

2. Does the life jacket fit you properly? We found this information on the State of Oregon Marine Board's website about proper life jacket fitting:

"Use the "touchdown test" to check if a life jacket fits. With the jacket on, raise your arms as though signaling a touchdown. If when looking to the left, right and over the shoulder, the chest part of the jacket doesn't hit the chin, the device probably fits. A good test for children is to have a child stand normally, arms at sides. Grab the life jacket at the shoulders and firmly lift up. If you can move the life jacket more than three inches up and down the child's body, it doesn't fit. A life jacket that doesn't fit could endanger the wearer as much as not wearing one. Check the PFD label for restrictions and limitations on its use and performance type."

3. Check your life jacket annually. Is it free of damage, including rips, tears, sunlight and UV damage? Will it even float? Throw it in the water and make sure that it will float, or better yet in a shallow pool test it out yourself. If it doesn't float, can't float you, or is damaged, replace it; don't even try and use it as a spare. The lives of those in your boat depend on this life jacket, now is not the time to be cheap. Remember the statistic, 90% of those who drowned in Oregon would have survived if they were wearing a properly fitting life jacket.

Those seem like simple steps, but no one ever plans to capsize their boat, or worse yet drown in the lake that 15 minutes before they were enjoying fishing at. These water emergencies happen so fast and often times so far away from where help can get to you quickly, it is up to you to be responsible before hitting the water. Two times in one week is enough for us, please be careful out there.